Whole Body Vibration – Two Fundamentally Different Technologies And Their Benefits

Whole Body Vibration – Why is it important?

If you have heard of vibration being important for gaining maintaining great health and want to understand more, then you are on the right webpage now. On this page, we shall explain why whole body vibration is great for your body.

We shall explain in detail what makes the machines providing the vibration facility useful. There are situations when you should prefer to use certain types of whole body vibration machines (or WBV machines, as they are also called). And then finally, we shall refer you to some of the brands that we believe to be reliable as on today.

What are WBV machines?

WBV machines, as the whole body vibration machines are popularly called, are power driven plate machines that provide you with exercises. The machines are designed such that these exercises are expected to lead your body towards a great muscle tone, reduced pains and joint issues, controlled weight and an overall degree of fitness.

These electrical machines provide platforms for you to stand on. Once you stand on them and switch them one, the machines start vibrating. On a reasonably good machine, you can set the rate of vibration to best meet your comfort zone (your comfort zone of vibration will become clear to you as you use these machines). Typically the comfort zone for most people lies between 25-50 Hz.

Once the frequency is set and the machine is powered on, the plate-based floor of WBV machine will now start to vibrate at the given frequency. And your entire body will also vibrate along with it as you stand on the machine. Thus, the electrical power will transfer to your body via the plate technology to provide you with the vibration that you would have been looking for.

One point to note here is that based upon the technology, there are two primary kinds of vibration plate machines available in today’s market. One class comprises of the machines providing linear vibration and the other class comprises of the ones providing pivotal vibration. With high-quality pivotal VBW machines, the body receives vibration only on the vertical direction, making the body move only on the vertical plane (going up and coming down). In case of linear machines, the movements are all-round including horizontal movements of the body also.

How do WBV machines help you exercise easily?

A number of people today use whole body vibration machines to take exercises. They claim it becomes a lot easier to take exercises using these machines as compared to taking the exercises without these. The manufacturers of these machines produce them to best translate the vibration into exercise-like benefits to the user’s body. The interesting question to answer here is how these machines help people exercise.

The vibration-based movements produce the effect of taking exercises on the whole body by providing acceleration to the body muscles. As the body vibrates on the powerful plates on those high frequencies (25-50 Hz), the muscles experience acceleration and deceleration all the time, throughout the session. As a reaction to the acceleration, the muscles try to compress and stabilize because of their natural propensity to adapt. This in turn ends up providing the desired exercise to the body.

It is interesting to note that you could also take your regular traditional exercises while you are on the WBV, and that has been reported to make the effectiveness of your traditional exercise magnified by a significant level.

What whole body vibration machines to prefer in given situations?

There are a number of situations on which you would prefer one type of WBV machine over the other. And then there are other situations on which you would not want to use a vibration plate machine at all. So let us now explore the situations.

First of all, if you are an aging person or have a history of certain injuries such as knee injuries or slipped disk in your past life then you would not want to go for a linear vibration exercise machine. You would prefer to have a pivotal exercise machine in this condition. That is because your vertical joints may not be strong enough to take the high number of changes of directions in such short timeframes that happen with the linear high frequency (25-50 Hz) vibration.

And then, if you are a body-builder you would want significantly more exercise with better overall body movement. You would easily have the physical stamina to accept all the directions of acceleration and hence a linear plate movement technology whole body vibration machine would be better power your exercise plans.

Note that there are certain circumstances under which you should not or may not opt for a WBV machine. Examples of such conditions are pregnancy, joint damage, high blood pressure, heart issues, past brain injuries and serious eye problems. This list is not exhaustive but would give you a great indication of what to avoid. If in any doubt, make it a point to talk to your doctor before you fully commit to perform whole body vibration based exercises.

What are some of the reliable brands of WBV machines today?

There are a number of brands of WBV machines that are available for purchase today. The price ranges vary starkly. The starting prices are as low as 250-300 dollars and the top-end machines are as expensive as 16000-19000 dollars. But to have a high quality machine with reliable guarantees that will transpire the whole range of benefits to your body using the vibration technology you want, be prepared to shell out anything between 1500-5000 dollars. The price range of the WBV machine will be defined more precisely depending upon the actual specifications, features and capacities.